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Presidential Debate Winner: Twitter & New Technology

By Ed Silverstein, TMCnet Contributor

New technology and social media continue to play a key role in this presidential election season. Not only did Twitter (News - Alert) set a record for the number of tweets for any political event because of Wednesday’s presidential debate, but new technology was employed to make discoveries about the candidates and voters.

There were about 10.3 million Tweets connected with the debate, making it the most tweeted-about event ever in U.S. politics, according to a Twitter blog post.

The events during the debate that led to the most tweets were when moderator Jim Lehrer said “Let’s not” when Gov. Mitt Romney requested a topic to discuss; President Barack Obama saying, “I had five seconds” when Lehrer gave a time limit; and the candidates’ statements about Medicare and the use of vouchers.

In another example, Americans for Limited Government contracted with Voice Analysis Technology to employ truth detecting technology to monitor Romney and Obama during the debate. The results were “inconclusive” as of Thursday morning, according to a company spokeswoman.

They used voice analysis to monitor voice patterns and show whether speakers were telling the truth or not. The system claims to reveal stress, level of excitement and concentration. Over 60 law enforcement agencies have used Voice Analysis Technology to interrogate suspects, the company said.

Image via Shutterstock

“The lie detector voice analysis tests of the presidential debate were found to be inconclusive by Voice Analysis Technology,” according to a statement from Americans for Limited Government. “The technology can detect a deception if the person knows they are deceiving, but if they believe what they are saying is true, even if it is not, it is not picked up. We are engaging in further review of these reports.”

A more successful attempt at using technology was via the “React Labs: Educate” app. The app, which measures instant reaction, showed that more than half of those watching Wednesday’s presidential debate believed Romney won – even though an overwhelming number of the thousands of college students taking part in the study were supporters of Obama, TechZone360 reported.

In total, 52 percent of the participants using the app believed Romney won the debate. However, 60 percent of those taking part plan to vote for Obama. In contrast, just 24 percent plan to vote for Romney, and 11 percent were undecided as of Wednesday.

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